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How to Be Courageous | Stacy McClendon

May 26, 2021 1h 11m 16 insights
Many of us know that meditation can confer benefits such as self-awareness, calm, and compassion, but what about courage? My guest today says, yes. Meditation can boost your courage quotient. And she will talk about exactly how. Her name is Stacy McClendon. She is a teacher at the Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis. She also has a background in social work. This is the second episode in our weeklong series marking the one year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. Stacy has been organizing and hosting weekly Truth and Justice Vigils online, available to anyone, during and after the trials of the men charged with murdering George Floyd. In this conversation, we talk about: a Buddhist list called the Ten Paramis, and how those qualities can support courage; how white people can step up and be courageous; how compassion is not a weakness; and how to be what she calls a "compassionate agitator." One technical note, you might hear a little background noise, including church bells, birds, and Stacy's 20 year old cat, Rain, who happened to share some opinions. We're offering 40% off the price of a year-long subscription for the Ten Percent Happier app until June 1st. Visit www.tenpercent.com/may to sign up today. Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/stacy-mcclendon-350
Actionable Insights

1. Integrate Practice into Daily Life

Don’t separate your spiritual or mindfulness practice (ethical living, kindness, respect, patience, generosity) from daily life; actively bring its fruits into the world through your actions.

2. Practice Meditation During Good Times

Diligently establish and maintain a meditation practice during periods of ease and calm to build resilience and training that will support you during inevitable crises.

3. Cultivate Compassion for All Beings

Extend compassion even to those who have done harm, seeking to understand the circumstances of their heart and mind to melt divisions, without endorsing their actions.

4. Embrace Collective Responsibility for Others

Recognize that ‘we belong to each other’ and are responsible for one another, moving away from extreme individualism and practicing generosity by letting go of what you have in excess.

5. Be a Compassionate Agitator

Speak truth directly and ask difficult questions with interest, care, and respect, aiming to help others understand the impact of their actions rather than just pointing out wrong.

6. Turn Toward Difficulty and Chaos

Cultivate courage by actively turning toward difficulty and chaos, recognizing that fear is often a conditioned response to past experiences, and discerning when to set it aside.

7. Examine Personal Habits Deeply

Use meditation practice as an intensive ’therapy’ to deeply examine your own habit tendencies and conditioning, which enables more skillful outward expression of your practice.

8. Practice the Ten Paramis

Actively cultivate the ten paramis (generosity, integrity, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, resolve, loving kindness, equanimity) in daily life to foster awakening and ethical engagement.

9. Engage in Difficult Conversations

Lean into your unique station in life to take action, starting with difficult conversations with close friends and family, engaging with genuine interest to understand their perspectives without trying to convince them.

10. Accept Missteps in Action

Take action with good intentions, accepting that you will make missteps; view ‘sticking your foot in your mouth’ as a sign of engagement, and meet any fallout with kindness, patience, and curiosity.

11. Avoid Self-Righteousness and Judgment

Guard against self-righteousness by asking how judging others serves your intention, and focus on genuine commitment to helping and closing gaps where ‘othering’ lives.

12. Sustain Diligence for Long-Term Change

Work for long-term social transformation with sustained diligence, understanding that full resolution may not occur in your lifetime, and act out of kindness, compassion, and joy, not for a specific outcome.

13. Tune into ‘Clean Residue’

Be in tune with your heart and actions, choosing those that feel light, free, and happy, and avoid those driven by greed, hatred, or delusion, aiming for a ‘clean residue’ from your choices.

14. Trust Your Second Instincts

Give yourself grace for initial ’lizard brain’ reactions, and cultivate trust in your second, more evolved instincts to guide your responses.

15. Join Truth and Justice Vigils

Participate in ongoing online ‘Truth and Justice Vigils’ (open to all) to find support, engage in dialogue, explore collective intentions, and work on unraveling conditioning that prevents compassionate action.

16. Utilize a Meditation App

Consider using a meditation app (like 10% Happier) for guided meditations, courses, and coaching to maintain a consistent, high-quality practice.